Augustan religion and the reshaping of Roman memory

Arethusa

Volumn 40, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 73-92

  Orlin, Eric ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149214328     PISSN: 00040975     EISSN: 10806504     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/are.2007.0004     Document Type: Review

References (12)

1. For earlier studies of Augustus's religious reforms, see Nock 1934, Liebeschuetz 1979.55-100, Kienast 1982.185-214, and further bibliography cited there
2. Beard, North, and Price 1998.61-84 provides a good survey of innovation in Roman religion
3. On the difference between Roman divination and Greek oracles, see Liebeschuetz 1979.8 n. 1
4. Livy 25.1; cf. 25.12. See also Val. Max. 1.3.2
5. On the Sibylline Books in general, see Parke 1998.136-51. For the controls placed on the use of the Sibylline Books, see Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4.62
6. O'Hara 1990.130 warns us that "Vergil's point of view cannot simply be equated with Jupiter's" since many of these prophecies are intended to deceive. This is a salutary reminder, though prophecy in the ancient world always has the capacity to deceive; it is the task of the human recipient to correctly interpret the prophecy. The importance of this passage and the shift it represents lies in the fact that Virgil even offers this new vision as a possibility; as Fowler 1990.57 notes: "Merely to show that there are other possibilities is a radical act." Regardless of whether Jupiter expresses Virgil's own vision, the prophecy opens up a new range of possibilities. On the role of Jupiter as a character in the poem whose perspective is difficult for either the narrator or the reader to grasp, but who nonetheless offers a commanding viewpoint, see Feeney 1991.137-55
7. On Roman religion as a religion of place, see Beard, North, and Price 1998.167-68
8. Lyne 1987.81-83 sees Jupiter here as merely glossing over a fact that will be unpalatable to Juno, but O'Hara 1990.144 argues that: "Aeneas' words in Book 12, the thematic connotations of Troy and Italy in Books 7-12, and the Rome that Vergil knew, create the strong impression that Jupiter's words to Juno are true."
9. While the temple of Jupiter Feretrius was supposedly built after the founding of Rome, Romulus in a sense is a "pre-Roman" as well, and his acceptance of foreigners into his new city, via the asylum for instance, makes him a similar figure to Evander and Hercules in suggesting connections beyond the immediate city of Rome. See further the discussion in Gros 1976.128
10. See Kraus 1994a, esp. 278-82, on the importance for Roman identity of moving beyond a simple repetition of the past
11. On this debate and its significance for identity issues, see Giardina 1997.3-10
12. Giardina 1997.18 notes that the senatorial position here is based on a notional consanguinity between Romans and Italians (and, by the end of the debate, also the Aedui), a position that actually differs from that put forward by the Aeneid